Pocket Full of Sunshine
by MountainVibes
Summary: Ivan meets a very interesting girl that may or may not be catching his eye... Is she more trouble than she's worth? Of course not! RussiaXOC. I think I suck at summaries. Will update rating as story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: First, here's the generic disclaimer yada yada… Hetalia and its characters do not belong to me. I have been a Hetalia fan since I was in 6th grade… I am about to be 22. That being said, this is my first fic ever so please give me some (be nice, I'm a sensitive baby) constructive criticism. Most importantly let me know if I should keep this story going because I already have it all planned out, beginning to end, WITH substories too. Hope you all enjoy!

Ivan glanced over at the ever-growing pile of paperwork on his desk, letting out a rather exasperated huff. He leaned back in his office chair and rubbed his eyes.

"Mr. Russia, i-is something wrong?" Toris's small voice asked from the other side of the room. The violet-eyed nation looked over at the smaller country, giving him almost childish pout. "I am tired of all this paperwork. I want to do something else for a while," he said as crossed his arms on the desk in front of him, then rested his chin on them.

"Just remember you have another summit meeting coming soon, Mr. Russia. However it is being held in Moscow this time, so you do have a little more time to work on everything than usual," commented Toris. Ivan seemed to ignore the comment but suddenly perked up instead, nearly jumping out of his chair.

"I know! I will go see Dmitry!" Walking towards the door, Ivan quickly put on his coat and wrapped his favorite scarf around his neck a few times. "I am starting to run low on vodka anyways. Also, I heard he is working on a new flavor. I want to be the first to try it!"

"A-ah, Mr. Russia, please don't be long! I can only do so much of this paperwork in your place..!" Toris called after Ivan, who was already taking long strides towards the front door. The smaller country gave a frustrated sigh upon hearing the door slam shut.

Ivan smiled, humming lightly to himself as he walked alongside the road. Though it was quite a walk to his favorite vodka distillery, he would much rather walk there than drive. Plus, he was appreciative of the early fall weather, not yet cold enough to take one's breath away but still giving in only slightly to the need for a coat and scarf. His smile grew brighter as he passed his favorite field of sunflowers, stopping to admire a particularly large one, brighter than its peers. His fingers grazed over its petals before he picked it gently. He brought it to his nose and took a deep breath in, then softly tucked in inside of his coat in such a way so that it wouldn't be crushed.

It was about halfway through his walk that Ivan stopped, and stared at the ground darkly. Several weeks had gone by since he had last visited Dmitri, his longtime friend and current owner of his favorite brand of vodka, Lukin Distilleries. Ivan had known the Lukin family ever since the first owner, back in the early 1800's. He even originally helped him, Yuri Lukin, start up his company back then. Lukin Distilleries had since grown to be one of the largest and most popular vodka brands in the country. Most of that growth had happened within the hands of Dmitri, who had in the past several years expanded his company to include a chain of high-end hotels across Russia. Ivan had kept close ties with the Lukin family, and even considered Dmitri to be his closest friend. But like the rest of the Lukin generations, the realization that his friend was growing old finally dawned on Ivan. Yet, Ivan stayed perpetually young, not looking much different than he did when he first met even Yuri. Ivan forced himself to keep walking, wondering how much time his friend had left and about the future of the company that he loved so much.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I made two chapters in one go... Hopefully to reel you guys into liking my story and telling me to keep going.

Ivan strolled into the front entrance of the building, giving a small smile and a nod to the receptionist as he passed by. The entire staff knew "Mr. Braginsky", save for the occasional newcomer. He was, after all, their biggest non-commercial buyer and he even helped out the distilling processes department in his spare time (not that he had much of that to go around). He made his way into the elevator, stepping out when it reached the top floor. The long hallway was decorated in traditional Russian paintings and tapestries, which Ivan always glanced at in appreciation despite having seen each piece hundreds of times over. He tapped his knuckles on the large, ornate wooden door three times before just pushing the door open and making his way in, knowing his friend wouldn't mind the intrusion.

"Ivan! How are you, friend?" a loud, jubilant voice carried across the room and Ivan made his way to one of the chairs sitting in front of Dmitri's desk.

"I am doing well, Da! I am sorry that I've been longer than usual without stopping by," Ivan gave him a warm but guilty smile.

"No worries! I have been busy myself anyway, making sure my Moscow hotel will have enough vacancies for your upcoming summit meeting," When Dmitri had heard that Moscow would be hosting the next meeting, he was more than happy to offer one of his hotels as both a venue for the meeting itself as well as a comfortable place for the rest of the nations to stay.

Ivan blushed a little at the comment, scratching the back of his head lightly. "Thank you again for that, I definitely owe you a favor or two for that one!" Iven let out a nervous chuckle. Dmitri just leaned back in his chair.

"Don't worry about it! Now, I hope you don't mind, I'm expecting a visitor any minute now. You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, Ivan,"

Ivan gave him a worried look. "I'm so sorry Dmitri, I should have asked before coming. I decided to come here on a whim; I can come back later if that would be better?"

"Nonsense! Besides, It's someone you've met before anyway. Though she probably won't remember you, she was only a toddler then," Ivan shot him a quizzical look. Dmitri smiled softly at a picture on his desk before turning it so that Ivan could see it. "My granddaughter. You remember my son, Vlad, don't you? He went off and married that Native American woman, from Montana. He thinks he's a cowboy or something now. This is their daughter, Denali. She just graduated college in America, and has decided to come live here for a bit," Ivan studied the picture, showing a smiling, dark haired young woman wearing a royal blue graduation cap and gown. She was thin and fit, and she had sun-kissed skin that was just dark enough that one could tell she preferred to spend her time outside. She also had striking jewel-blue eyes, the intensity of them reminding Ivan of his own violet eyes. He wracked his brain for some sort of memory of the girl, but came up short. Looking back at Dmitri, he saw him roll his eyes a bit. "She's grown up to be a beautiful girl, but she's gone and covered herself in tattoos. Oh, and she likes to keep her hair purple," he shook his head lightly. "I just don't get the fad…"

"AHEM. I HAVE THREE TATTOOS, DYEDA. THREE. I highly doubt that counts as "covered"! And my hair color is called "blackberry", thankyouverymuch. I tend to get quite a few compliments on it!" Ivan's head snapped back to the door to see the same girl from the picture only moments ago. Except this version (at, the moment, at least) seemed a lot angrier. And a lot…shorter? There was no way she was taller than 5 foot at the most. Perhaps she had been wearing heels in the picture? Ivan broke his stare at her to see Dmitri walking around his desk towards the girl. Her expression softened to a genuine smile as she hugged the older gentleman. "I missed you, Dyeda! But you have GOT to lay off me about my appearance!" She stuck her tongue out at him jokingly, causing Ivan to crack a half smile at the gesture he could only think of as adorable.

Dmitri hugged her back tightly. "You're my only granddaughter and I haven't seen you in seven years! I've got to pick on somebody!" She rolled her eyes but smiled. "Yeah, yeah…" She peered around her grandfather at Ivan, then gave Dmitri a look of concern. "Did I interrupt a meeting? I can go wait in the lobby if I need to?" Dmitri lead her to the other chair adjacent to Ivan. "Absolutely not, dear! Ivan is a family friend, he just comes to visit sometimes. I was just telling him that you two have met once before, but you were only a toddler then!" She looked at Ivan, giving him a sad smile. "I'm sorry, I don't quite remember!" Ivan chuckled back, reaching a hand out to her. "That's alright, I'm not sure that I do either! My name is Ivan, Ivan Braginsky," She took his hand with a smile, expecting a handshake but blushed deeply when he brought her hand to his lips and lightly kissed the top of her hand. "I-, uh, I'm Denali…Denali Lukin…" she stammered as she gently pulled her hand back and tried to hide the red in her cheeks. "Nice to meet you… Again, I guess..?" Ivan smiled warmly, and pretended not to notice her blush. "Da!"

Denali turned to her grandfather, who had seated himself back at his desk. "So, what was this job opportunity that you wanted to tell me about?"

"Oh, yes!" he glanced at Ivan briefly, then clasped his hands together and rested his forearms on the desk. "In our Moscow hotel. We will be hosting the next summit meeting on our conference room there. I need someone I can trust to wait on the delegates throughout the meetings. You know, seat them, bring them drinks, hors d'oeuvres. Things like that. I will pay you by the hour, under the table. Plus," Dmitri shot another quick glance at Ivan. "I've heard that the nations tip well for things like that. Especially the larger ones." He leaned back in his chair. "I figured it would help you start paying off some of those student loans you've seemed to rack up these past few years," Denali scoffed and rolled her eyes again, this time looking at Ivan. "I'm an heiress to a multi-million dollar company, and they still are making me pay my own loans?! What kind of shit is that?!"

"LANGUAGE, Denali. I am trying to teach you responsibility!" She gave him another playful smile. "I know, I know! I'm only joking, Dyeda! You know I always try to take care of myself."

"I'm serious Denali. It's a day and a half of work and I'm going to pay you double what I usually pay servers. It will be hard work but I think you'll find it worth it. You'll also be staying in one of the best rooms in the hotel for no charge," He peered at her over his glasses.

"Of course I want to do it! But when is it? You know I have to take a trip to Kamchatka in a couple of months for my study," She asked him, bringing her legs underneath herself in the chair. Ivan flashed a confused look between the two as Dmitri dropped his head slightly and sighed. "The summit is next week, but I was hoping you had changed your mind about that."

"Perfect, then of course I'll do it! But as far as the excursion? Nope, I'm going. Already paid for in full. Plus I kind of have no choice, it was part of my graduation agreement," She crossed her arms, almost defiantly.

Ivan shifted in his chair. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be nosy, but why are you going to Kamchatka? Surely you did not choose it for leisure?" Denali turned and beamed at him, grinning. "I'm wildlife management major! I just graduated last month, but part of my graduation agreement is that I have to do a study on a wildlife population. I like to go big or go home, so I chose to do a three-week excursion to Kamchatka to study the bear population there!" Her arms were still crossed, but this time she looked confident and proud rather than stubborn. Ivan only frowned. "Denali, that sounds incredibly dangerous. There are only a handful of towns there, and even those are few and far between." She gave him a sort of nonchalant wave, smiling. "I can handle myself! Besides, I won't be going alone. There's a group of about eight of us signed up,"

Ivan sighed at her. "I agree with your grandfather, I think you should reconsider." Denali gave him yet another smile, one that he was beginning to enjoy more than he probably should. "I'll think about it," she replied, though it didn't exactly sound sincere. "But Dyeda, why did you look at Ivan when you were talking about the meeting? Does he have something to do with it?" Dmitri coughed out of slight embarrassment but Ivan only chuckled. "Da, I have lots to do with it!" he said cheerfully, causing her to look at his with her head cocked to the side. "I am Russia!" Her eyes suddenly went wide.

"Wait…WHAT?"


End file.
